Colonial Civil War
The Colonial Civil War was the major conflict of the Colonial Era, involving in some way almost every holding in the Colonial Sphere. Fought between the UCN and rebel forces , the Civil War marked a decade of intense bloodshed and destruction that nearly destroyed the Colonial Sphere. The war marked a shift in Colonial politics, allowing the colonies their first chance to govern themselves independently from the influence of Earth. Background Increased Tensions The Colonial Civil War was a result of small events and diplomatic actions taken throughout the Colonial Era that led to an increase of tension between the UCN and the colonies they ruled. As generations became more removed from Earth, they began to yearn for more independence from the tithes and taxes the UCN was placing on them. Panicked about their possibility of survival should the colonies break free of Earth's influence, the UCN pressured the colonies even more for heightened tithes and exports. Using the UCA as an extortion tool, the UCN managed to keep most colonial governments in check in the short term. The consequences of this arose during the onset of hostilities, as independence movements swelled with supporters and the UCN found themselves fighting a greatly buoyed enemy. Agronnach Defence Force When the UCA was commissioned in 2149, the planet of Agrona was exempt from their sphere of influence. Due to the nature of UCG's control over the colony of Agrona, they were forced to establish their own force for protection. The Agrona Defence Force was formed primarily to police the colony, operating a small fleet of ships, a small professional corps of marines and various civilian militias on the planet. The success of the ADF, and their rapid expansion as the colony of Agrona grew to be more and more important, led to it becoming the target of UCN attention. Manufacturing an incident between the UCA and the ADF fleet in 2160, the UCN called for the confiscation of the entire ADF spacefaring fleet, moving UCA ships into the area to ensure security for the colony. Refusing to comply, a standoff ensued with the outmatched ADF forces ultimately scuttling their own fleet rather than handing them over to the UCA. This incident sparked massive anti-Earth sentiment across the colony, paving the way for UCGs refusal eight years later in 2168 when the UCA returned to call for the abandonment of the ADF entirely. UCA Police Action The UCA, backed by the UCN, landed on Agrona in force in 2168 to ensure the prompt dissolution of the ADF. Brief skirmishes with militias were the only military resistance the UCA faced, and the planet was soon pacified. Massive amounts of UCA troops were garrisoned on the planet to continue the occupation and to support the UCN's new mandate to control the planet. This military response, seen by many to be heavy-handed, led to several protests by the citizens of Agrona. Clashes between UCA forces and the protesters soon led to riots, resulting in the Massacre at Ayron. The resulting backlash amongst the populace, as well as the other colonies once news of the event had been published, brought the independence movements to the forefront of public consciousness. The UCN began to be viewed as a dictatorial institution by a wide range of people, rather than just fringe groups as it had before. To combat this, the UCN pushed itself to be more proactive in the subjugation of the colonies. Garrisoning UCA soldiers on every colony, much like they had at Agrona, the UCN hoped to pacify the colonists and subdue any independence movements that could spring up. UCN Reform and Rebellion The UCN, in an effort to legitimize its police interdictions on the various colonies, reformed itself in 2170. The new state, far from resolving any issues the colonies held, exacerbated the problems and fed fire to the growing unrest amongst the colonial sphere. Centralizing itself into a more dominant state, the UCN's act of reform abolished the governments of the colonies and replaced their representatives in the UCN assembly with puppet administrations that could be readily controlled from Earth, in addition to granting further reach to the UCA and expanding the reach the UCN had over the colonies. Brutally efficient in its goals, the UCN reform marked the first real shot of the war and effectively set the Colonial Sphere on the track to war more than the UCA crackdown ever did. Forced to go underground, many of the independence movements began to arm and ready themselves for the inevitable conflict against the growing dictatorship of Earth and the UCN. As a popular Agronnach saying went, "You have the watches, but we have the time." The First Shots The first real declaration of war came from Agrona in 2172, two years after the reform of the UCN. The ADF had taken these intervening years to prepare themselves for war, and the first salvo of assaults saw a dramatic change from the last skirmishes with the UCA. In an explosive assault that saw much of the UCA garrison destroyed over the course of a few weeks, Agrona announced itself as an independent colony and declared war on the UCN and Earth. Rising up alongside Agrona was Perun, who had suffered a major UCA garrison during the crackdown in 2168. With Perun's secession, a large portion of the UCA, mostly Perunese forces, mutinied against the UCN and went over to the rebels. The influx of soldiers and equipment this brought was a huge boon for the vastly outgunned ADF, and provided the rebels with a competent naval element that would prove immensely helpful in the early days of the conflict. Course of the War Early Battles (2172) The swell of soldiers and equipment, primarily the important capability of warships, marked a dramatic increase in the threat the rebellion posed to the UCA. With much of their forces garrisoned on other colonies, the UCA was hardly swift in responding to this threat, and suffered several early key defeats that gave even more legitimacy to the rebels. The Battle of Taranis marked the largest of these engagements, resulting in the destruction of a sizeable part of the UCA's naval fleet and the landing of rebel troops on Morrigan. Independents on Morrigan, though a minority of the populace, rose up on the surface as Agronnach troops began to land. The fight for control of Morrigan would last the next two years, with fighting mainly occuring outside of the cities. Perunese resistance also began at this early stage, disrupting the planets industry and diverting UCA resources away from the Agronnach front. Liberation of Chicchan (2174) After their victory on Morrigan, rebel forces turned their sights on the Tepeu system and the idyllic world of Chicchan. UCA forces, still reeling from their defeats in Taranis, chose to give up Chicchan with little fight. Instead, they pulled all of their forces out of the system in an effort to consolidate their holdings at the cost of a strategically unimportant planet. When the rebels arrived in the system, they found only a token defence on the planet. An air war was conducted that saw the rebels victorious in a matter of days. With the UCA fled, the population of Chicchan joins the cause of the rebels. The Eye of the Storm (2175) With the UCA consolidating its forces and preparing defences in the sectors it still held, the rebels choose to do the same. While the UCA saw the need for strong defences and an opportunity to rebuild their damaged fleet, the rebels were having another problem. Despite their victories, the rebel troops were quite a ragtag group. A fast escalation of hostilities and the relative scope of the fighting meant that much of their soldiers were untrained civilians. The fighting on Morrigan had tempered some, but most were still too raw to reinforce the patchwork fleet of mutineers or the ground forces. Hostilities dipped, with the war becoming something of a cold war on the frontier as ships skirmished and no real battles were fought between the two sides. Rebellion still flourished though, as the population of Perun continued its resistance to UCN rule. The lull allowed UCA forces to considerably bolster the garrisons on Perun, resulting in the rebels on the planet being forced into low-level sabotage engagements and raids on patrols rather than the open, run and gun fighting they had been resorting to. Liberation of the Vishnu System (2176) The rebels, having reorganized and reinforced their forces, took the fight back to the UCA with an attack on the Vishnu system. During their phase of rebuilding, the UCA reinforced Lakshmi and Ganesh the least out of their remaining systems, and so it proved the ripest target for the ICSA to strike out at. As ICSA ships entered the system, however, they were greeted by a much empowered UCA fleet gathered around Lakshmi. As battle was joined, rebels on Lakshmi, who had so far been silent and anticipated an imminent ICSA breakthrough, stood up and began to fight the UCA occupiers. But ICSA intelligence on the UCA strength had been wrong, and the rebel forces were pushed back towards Ganesh, which had fallen early in the offensive. With the ICSA momentarily pushed back, the UCA turned its attentions towards the rebels on Lakshmi. Devastating the upstarts in a series of quick and decisive battles, along with a bombing campaign against civilian centres, all but neutralized the fighters before any damage could be done. Eventually, the ICSA managed to defeat the UCA fleet around Lakshmi, though they found little military support left on the surface to add to their offensives. Fighting in the Svarog (2177) With the fighting in the Vishnu system done, the ICSA finally turned its attentions towards the embattled Perun and the rest of the Svarog System. With virtually the entire populace of Perun fighting for liberation, the once mighty industry of the planet had been crippled and reduced to little more than an enormous warzone. Amidst the mines and refineries, UCA soldiers fought saboteurs and ambushes, treating it more like an occupation of a hostile nation than any other colony in the Sphere. With the ICSA finally entering the system in 2177, Perun rose up as capably as it could, inflicting enormous casualties on the ground forces of the UCA that remained. With the UCA heavily engaged on Perun, ICSA forces encroached on the planet only to face the massive missile batteries of Veles, as well as the remainder of a rebuilt UCA fleet. Facing down a number three times their own, an ICSA victory seemed to be out of reach. Out of reach until Sistema, the effective government of Veles, offered to hand the station over to ICSA control if they were guaranteed continued governance. Accepting the offer, Sistema turned the missile batteries on the UCA fleet above Perun, inflicting massive casualties and allowing the ICSA forces to gain the upper hand and eliminate the bulk of the UCA fleet. With Perun and Veles firmly in their grasp, the ICSA turned their attentions to Morana, where a few open engagements destroyed the few UCA still willing to fight for the planet, while the remainder surrendered at ICSA planetfall. The push to Tian (2178-2179) With the UCA heavily defeated in open combat, and little of their fleet managing to limp back to Tian, the UCA prepared to fortify Tian and force the ICSA to pay for every inch they were able to take. As the ICSA forces entered the Shangdi System, they easily defeated the UCA blockades, landing troops in short order on the factories and city-centres around the planet. Perun's militias, having had extensive experience fighting in the underworld on their own planet, adapted quickly to the tight city-fighting of Tian and were by far the most successful of all the ICSA forces. Ultimately, the campaign proved long and bitter, resulting in massive bloodshed on both sides as the fighting tears Tian to pieces. An ICSA victory is inevitable however, due to total blockade of the planet by naval forces. With Tian finally falling in 2179, the path is open for the ICSA to encroach on Earth directly. UCN Capitulates (2180) As ICSA forces close on the inner planets of the Sol System, little resistance is encountered. The UCN is utterly defeated and, as Earth is encircled, totally capitulates to the ICSA.